billybunters - from a bmw z4 to a mx5 se

[Okibi]

Seen these?

[billybunter]

DAY 4

no! but if I was thinking bare metal i'd say it would be worth a look. I could see it saving a fair bit of time really.

looking at yesterday's rub back on the rear and in the boot I could see clear coat highlights and plenty of them too. same too on the back panel. so it was back in the same area today. today effect went close on the 3 hour mark so you could say I put in overtime








while at it I decide to look around for my old spray gun. finally found it and unfortunately I had not clean it out since spraying the car RED so out with the all purpose thinners for a good soaking. found this to be a pretty good gun to use and if I am to spray artic white- i'd say it will have to be spotlessly clean





slight mess to fix up here





cleaned up this rear panel with a rub back @ 400 wet





boot section is now pretty well done








then it was back over to the right rear end and give it a 400 rub down so it pretty well done now.

[RS2000]

Billy, you seem to do all your painting under a carport/pergola. How do you prevent airborne rubbish from getting in the coats? Do you wet the floor before spraying? I have trouble even in a garage!

[billybunter]

I've got a double garage right behind the mgf but I don't think I could see well enough to paint in there it's fairly well protected where it is now and I will just let it sit right up to the primed stage.
we I go for the top coat I will wet the tiles down and run a large plastic cover right along the pergola and across the rear of the house and enclose the lot in. that works well and usually I don't have much trouble with dirt but you can pick up the odd insect if you leave it to late in the year.
I want this totally finished by end of October so I may have to increase my work output or I may not
I see your rs2000 avatar. I had one of those new in 1980 in RED cost me $8K new. I also had the chance to buy a genuine traded FORD GTHO PHASE 3 for $10K not detailed and owned by a local orchardist.
I had the car overnight and returned it to the dealer next day and said it was a bit hungry on gas and bought the rs2000 instead although 10 years later I did buy a genuine FORD XYGT just for the thrill the PHASE 3 is totally a different $$$ game
either way they are all rubbish

[RS2000]

Thanks Billy. I've only done a little painting, but certainly did struggle in the garage getting light in the right places, & overspray dust covering everything. Next time I do a panel or two I will try the carport with plastic & wet floor.
The RS2000 is the same year & colour as yours was. Compared to modern cars they are very 'agricultural' to drive, but they steer well. Yes the Phase 3 would be worth a bit today!

[billybunter]

yeah I certainly gave that rs2000 a workout not long out of the showroom and around Australia in 6 weeks and 18,000 klm and that was when the top of west aust was partly dirt road. you could sit in comfort in those scheel seats I think -all day. I did Darwin to alice in one long day

on my trip up there two years back - not a chance now

if you were painting in a garage first off you have to have very good ventilation to extract the drift.....or leave the doors partly open. plus you attract sticky beaks or others wondering what your doing or if you are spraying the right paint. I only use acrylic anyway

later on I will take a shot of the verandah I built and where I block it off and I still get the mist out but I also get the temp up inside the cube by several degrees. where I live this helps a lot and if its only 10C and I can get it to 15C I can spray

[billybunter]

DAY 5

probably put in a good 3 hours today on the job. I knew i'd be in for a bit of early morning rubbing







after that was smooth in I started masking up the striker plates in prep for some etch priming on the bare metal patches










once this was out of the way I allowed about 90 minutes for it to complete dry. meanwhile the air compressor had not run since xmas so I gave it a run to about 70 psi then released the valve underneath the unit to get rid of any condensation which had accumulated over the past 9 odd months. what came out were droplets of dirty water. I use a toilet roll filter system in line when spraying - so water in the airways is NEVER a problem
after that the compressor refused to run and it looked like i'd be buying a new one but I decided to remove the on/off cap and a wire had broke.=- so fixed that




I still had a little bit of my primer left over from the previous RED paint job so it should do so on it went. only working on the rear end of the car anyway













now you might ask - did he move or cover the mgf while he was spraying primer within a metre of it,,,,NO!

[billybunter]

while out in the yard today..... rubbing away I had time to reflect on days gone by and that beautiful RED paint job which was once on the car. I thought if only I still had the skills from the early '70's when I used to hunt foxes for the big $$$$ hides

I could have whipped out my favourite puma pocket knife and ran the blade around the shell of the car- pulled off shiny red paint and unlike the old days when I nailed the fox hide to the hallway floor at the rental house - I could now stapled this memento to my wall instead

[billybunter]

DAY 6

first off the driver's side door. had to clean up around the door handle first then on with the task of removing the window rubber. the first time I painted the car white I left this in place and just masked it up. not a good idea but good enough then. forgot to take the photo but will show it later on the other side of the car, but it give you a rough idea how much paint is still on under the rubber and if you sand and musk to the rubber why it will crack in time and ruin your work





next up the front guard




using 400wet rub soon had most of the red blocked out





back to the drivers side door. it was originally hit with 80 grit then 120 or 180. you can see the scratches sitting in the grey primer




now wet rubbed with 400 and pretty close to gone. these were pretty nasty jobs too





bit better look from a distance - go bette worked area just in centre for demo purpose only




best to remove the front guard bolts to clean up in here








then its onto the front. most of this section is completely covered but I might as well do it as best I can. after all I have to repeat the job I stuffed





that's it for today

[speed]

Progressing nicely. Sanding is my least favourite job.
I'd really like to see your technique blocking the doors or any of the side of the car.
Any chance you could get a helper to shoot a short video?
Thanks

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[billybunter]

I will see what I can do on the sanding video - you supply the paper

[billybunter]

DAY 7

I've mentioned a couple of times i'd like to put the new paint job on as good as the previous RED. well I don't class myself as a negative person but it doesn't inspire much confidence so I am aiming for a better than the RED job or worse - its one or the other. not interested in equaling it

I started today looking here





then over to this side






after that I thought stuff it and pulled both front guards off. if I want to go better I have to prepare better too



looking at my front guard I wondered what was going on there. ah yes, the frog arm incident a few years back. a quick trial and paint over








so I got out the 120 sandpaper and into it and the paint started falling apart. started thinking -what the f//k is wrong here. then remembered I covered it over with plasti- dip








probably took a good 45 minutes to this stage to clean up this area and I still have to go further into the door cavity. if you look at the work 45 minutes earlier you can see the progress made.
I don't think I will pull the doors. its not hard now but taking them off is pretty easy and putting them back on by yourself with the risk of possible back injury is quite possible I think I can like always work around it





end of day

[Boyracer]

I reckon if not yellow, green would be great

[Nevyn72]

I reckon if not yellow, green would be great

The 'grace green' that was a factory option colour for the SE in Japan?

I still vote for the Laguna Blue!

[KevGoat]

Don't worry ... bb will get to all those colors with time

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